advice on dedicated line


Hello.

I need to have an electrician do some work on my house, and am mulling over a dedicated line for my sound system while she or he is there.

I am new to this, though, and not especially sophisticated about electrical matters. So I am wondering what exactly I want to ask for, and thought maybe you all would know.

I have an amplifier, a cd player, a Sonos unit, and a DAC.

Do I want two dedicated lines--one for the amplifier and one for everything else? So 2 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire?

Do I need to say something else about ground wires etc? About the breaker box?

Can I get 3 outlets on one dedicated line?

What kind of outlets do I want?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

mc
mcanaday
For what it's worth I have two 20 amp dedicated lines for my 2 channel system. I ran #10-2 with ground NM-B cable. (Romex is a trade name of NM-B cable). Each run is about 75' each. Digital equipment on one line, analog on the other. My system is dead quiet.

Al, Your last post was right on IMO.
.

Here is a post by the late Robert Crump.

Quote.
"Posted by rcrump (M) on February 5, 2004 at 07:15:55
In Reply to: Re: Why solid over stranded??? posted by Jwm on February 3, 2004 at 06:20:47:"

"Solid core Romex has an absolute ton of inductance and you can use that to roll off the digital backwash and end up isolating your analog from digital with yards of the solid core Romex in the walls. Romex is insulated with PVC and, again I will say that PVC is what you want rather than anything faster as you just want to pass 60hz and attenuate anything above that.....Stranded wire, especially a twisted lay, will pass high frequencies better, exactly what you don't want to do with 60hz AC.......
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/8/88644.html

Most of the AC noise/hash on the mains of our audio equipment is connected to is caused by the power supplies of the audio equipment.
Dedicated branch circuits will decouple audio equipment power supplies from one another.

http://www.middleatlantic.com/pdf/PowerPaper.pdf

Jim
Excellent post Jim. Thanks. That's exactly where I'm heading. I may go for 2 or 3 dedicated Romex circuits. A 15 amp job for my CDP. A 15 or 20 amp line for just the amp, although I suspect 15 amps would be major overkill since the amp pulls about 800 watts (or 7.5+ amps when driving a heavy load). And a 3rd line for the rest of the my gear.
Would it be workable for me to get 6 outlets instead if 4 in case I ever wanted to plug in a small fm receiver to listen to the news? Or is that pushing my luck?

IMO, a better idea is to use a high quality power strip for your low current components and plug your amp into the wall. Then you won't run out of receptacles and you'll be protected.

a very popular power strip by Furman...
http://www.amazon.com/Furman-Standard-Conditioning-Aluminum-Protection/dp/B0009GI65Q
Excellent post Jim. Thanks. That's exactly where I'm heading. I may go for 2 or 3 dedicated Romex circuits. A 15 amp job for my CDP. A 15 or 20 amp line for just the amp, although I suspect 15 amps would be major overkill since the amp pulls about 800 watts (or 7.5+ amps when driving a heavy load). And a 3rd line for the rest of the my gear.
02-09-14: Bifwynne

Bifwynne,

Install only 20 amp dedicated branch circuits. Wire size #12 solid core copper bare minimum. Per NEC Code a 20 amp NEMA 5-20R receptacle can only be installed on a 20 amp circuit. A NEMA 5-15R 15 amp duplex receptacle can also be installed on a 20 amp branch circuit.
Porter Ports are NEMA 5-20R 20 amp duplex receptacles.

How long are the runs from the electrical panel to your equipment? Don't forget to figure up and down, over and around, when figuring the lengths.

Tell the electrician to try and keep each branch circuit length the same. Do not mix wire sizes. Make all dedicated branch circuits either #12 or #10 wire.
Jim

Thanks again, all. I've reread this, and if I get Al's point, I might be better off with 2 20 amp circuits; but if I end up with grounding issues then I can put everything on one circuit and then I'll be at the baseline of where I would have been if I just started with one. So two is a way to optimize my results...but of course I have to get an electrician who will do this all carefully. And I guess if I hit resistance with the electrician, I can always drop back to one line and this will still be better than what I have currently.

A lot of moving parts!

A few other questions:
-I'm gathering from Al's post above that I should I get around to upgrading power cords, longer is better? Is this also true of interconnects?

-Is it enough to tell the electrician I want 10 gauge wire? Or do I need to supply him or her with it? If so, where would I get #10-2 NMB? (I assume this is what I want.)

I confess that I had a dream last night that I burned down my house!

Thanks again, everyone.

Margot